5 Skills Every Social Media Professional Should Have

With businesses continuing to see the importance of social media to help grow their business, spread awareness, and engage their customers, there is an increase and need for social media pros to help businesses succeed.

Social media has become one of the most important marketing tools for businesses, and with the demand of social media and community managers growing, so is the competitiveness for professionals in this industry. Meaning that it’s important that you are continually learning and improving your skillset to not only be more competitive, but also be on top of the demands that come along with a job in this field.

Here are some important skills for all social media professionals to have.

1. Design

It’s likely that you will have access to a graphic designer on the marketing team you work on, but in the world of social media, content can be fast paced and time sensitive, and you may not have time to work directly with a designer. Having some design knowledge can help for times when you need to create images for social on a fly.

2. Multimedia creation

Photos and videos can be the most effective content on social media. The saying, “A photo is worth a thousand words,” is incredibly accurate when it comes to social media engagement and the success of your social channels. In fact, social fans are 40 times more likely to share visual content than any other type.

Therefore having the ability to produce quality images and videos for different social channels is a critical skill for social media pros. Especially since budgets and quick turnaround times may not allow for you to work with a professional photographer or videographer.

3. Analytics

Just like any marketing channel, people want proof that the time and money being spent in social media is worth it. Numbers can be everything, so it’s critical that as a social media professional you not only have the knowledge of how to pull important numbers, but also how to analyze them and draw key findings that will help you grow and improve your social channels.

4. Customer service

Social media is the new call centre for many businesses, and it is a real-time customer service tool. Even though you’re sitting behind a computer screen or device all day, it’s still critical to have impeccable customer service skills. From dealing with complaints and angry fans, to everyday community management and engagement, knowing how to create, and nurture your relationships with your social media fans is an important and necessary skill for social media professionals.

5. Content development

From sourcing external content to share on your channel, to writing something as short as a tweet, content development is a primary component of any successful social media platform. Knowing how to write both long form and short form content, and developing all types of content from photos and videos, to stories and campaigns. To be a successful social media professional, you must be a good storyteller, writer and content developer.

In today’s competitive workforce, it’s important for any professional to never stop learning and continue to improve and expand their skillset in order for them to stand out from the competition. In order to set yourself up for success in a career in social media management, accept that you are going to have to be a jack of all trades, and never stop learning.

About the Author

Lauren Marinigh is a Toronto-based online marketing and content development professional, who is completely addicted to traveling, puppies, and GIFs.

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